On December 14, Congressmember Paul Mitchell of Michigan’s 10th district told the Clerk of the U.S. House to switch his partisan affiliation in the Congressional Directory from Republican to independent.  Michigan doesn’t have registration by party, so there is no other method for anyone to announce party membership or independent status than to say so publicly.

Mitchell was elected for the first time in 2016, and was re-elected in 2018, but did not run in 2020, so he has less than a month in office.  He represents the “thumb” of the Michigan “hand”, the area north of Detroit that extends into Lake Huron.  Thanks to Political Wire for this news.

On December 9, former U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, and Bob Kerry of Nebraska, and former New Jersey Governor Christy Todd Whitman, and other former elected officials filed this amicus curiae brief in Level the Playing Field v FEC, the presidential debates case.

The FEC has obtained permission to delay filing its response.  The FEC response is now due January 13, 2021.

On December 14, Maine state representative John Andrews changed his voter registration from Republican to Libertarian.  He represents part of Oxford County and lives in the county seat, Paris.  He was first elected to the legislature in 2018, and was re-elected last month.

The Maine Libertarian Party is not now ballot-qualified, but Maine residents are permitted to register into the Libertarian Party because it has filed paperwork showing that it is intending to qualify.  Also the party has a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to regain its qualified status, which for a newly-qualifying party, requires 5,000 registered members by January 2022.